The Wave

Just finished a most thought-provoking book that now leaves me dazed and depressed - 'The Wave' by Todd Strasser. Not sure how many have read it.

The story relates how a history teacher was having difficulty persuading his class how the entire German nation could be caught up with the Nazi fervour and atrocities in WW2. The teacher then decided to create a situational experiment in the class. He initiated a 'Wave movement', slowly and quietly introducing militalistic physical and psychological elements similar to that engaged by the Nazis, for the students to experience and learn for themselves. He did not let the students into his intentions. It was all done in a very subtle manner. Over the next few weeks, the movement, known as 'The Wave', soon swept the entire class along with it, and gained momentum, spilling into other classes. Things began to get out of control. Students started getting threatened and hurt. Discriminatory abuses seeped in. The community and parents started raising concerns. Finally, he had to think of some way to end this monster he had created, and he did so in a most spectacular manner.

I had initially read the book with some skepticism. It was at first simply a good read. Afterall, how plausible is it? Can the experiment develop in this manner if it is conducted in a real life classroom?

Imagine how stunned I was when I finally read that the story, in fact the entire 'Wave movement' experiment, had been closely based on a real school incident that took place in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969. Furthermore, this book is now required reading in many German schools today, and has been dramatized on the screen and stage as well. The actual history teacher concerned was invited by the German government in 1993 to address anti-facist gatherings and spoke at the actual sites of the Nuremberg Nazi rallies and Hitler's Gold Room.

How the impressionable young minds of the students were so easily manipulated and caught up in the frenzy to be part of the 'in' group really leave much for thought. More insightful is how those students who were formerly unpopular or marginalised grabbed at this new chance, and pushed themselves to the forefront of this new movement. It also reminds one of how the youths were all caught up in the Red Guard fervour of China's devastating Cultural Revolution.

And all these actually happened.